What is contemporary Latin American art? Who are its advocates? What is the role of the art collector in this sphere? These are questions that the curator of the exhibition, Jesús Fuenmayor, examined while selecting works for the exhibition Plural Domains. Since its inception in 2002, the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation has created one of the most extensive and substantial programs of contemporary Latin American art. Contemporary Latin American art, as reflected in the CIFO Collection, includes artists from all generations, countries of origin, fields, preferences, and experiences. In this exhibition, the three customary CIFO generational distinctions are reflected: established, mid-career, and emerging artists. Also reflected are the predominant geographical origins of the artists: Venezuelans, Uruguayans, Argentineans, Brazilians, Mexicans, Cubans, Peruvians, Ecuadorians, Colombians, and Guatemalans, many of whom have found other horizons beyond their places of origin.

From the sixties onward, Latin American artists began to react to new world situations and consider the different possibilities of responding to them. As few of them continued to examine iconographic or narrative language to define Latin America identity, a set of new artists begin to challenge the stereotypes of what it meant and means to be Latin American. In many cases, tracing the “Latin American” identity of a particular work or artist has become such a complex task that it can be almost impossible to distinguish them from artists from other latitudes or with other cultural baggage. By no means does this cause the work to lose interest or a sense of belonging.

The curator, Jesús Fuenmayor, notes, “The displacement of the aesthetic to the anthropological, the incorporation of the viewer or the reception of the work in considerations on its production, the critical awareness of the political, social, economic, and cultural conditions of an ever more globalized and at the same time atomized world, the philosophical problems of contemporaneity, the relationship of art to other disciplines, only hint at the topics that interest present-day Latin American artists.”

He continues, “Most probably, if we search each one of the works in this exhibition for some trait that will identify them as Latin American, we will be taking on a supremely arduous task. But if we understand that their contribution has been to configure a space of dialogue and reflection, we will be able to find in each of them the dominant imperatives, not only of Latin America, but of our very contemporaneity.”

Manuel De Santaren, President of CIFO, adds: “This exhibition asks questions and examines themes which need to be brought to light, and I am thrilled that CIFO has the breadth of work available to be able to create an exhibition of this caliber.”

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About the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO)

Ella Fontanals-Cisneros established the non-profit Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) in 2002. The Foundation's mission is to support and foster cultural understanding and educational dialog among Latin American artists and global audiences. CIFO serves as a platform for emerging, mid-career and established Latin American artists through the Grants & Commissions Program, the CIFO Collection, and other related art and cultural projects in the United States of America and internationally.